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WWE NXT (TV series)
WWE NXT is a professional wrestling television program that is produced by WWE and is broadcast on the WWE Network every Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET. Since June 2012, it has served as the flagship television show of WWE's developmental system. Prior to this, NXT existed as a seasonal show which was presented as a hybrid between reality television and WWE's scripted live event shows, in which talent from WWE's developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling participated in a competition to become WWE's next "breakout star" with the help of mentors from WWE's Raw and SmackDown brands. Five seasons of this version of NXT were broadcast from February 23, 2010 to June 13, 2012, with the first four seasons seeing Wade Barrett, Kaval, Kaitlyn, and Johnny Curtis as winners. In the later stages of season five, the all-rookie competition was abandoned with no winner being officially named, although Derrick Bateman was the final remaining rookie on NXT Redemption after both Titus O'Neil and Darren Young were signed to the SmackDown brand. Following the end of the fifth season, WWE ended the seasonal competition format of the show and renamed its developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling to WWE NXT. The show originally made its debut on Syfy on February 23, 2010, replacing ECW, which concluded the previous week. In April 2010, a month after its premiere, it was announced that SmackDown would move from MyNetworkTV to Syfy on October 1. NXT aired its final episode on Syfy on September 28, 2010 to make way for SmackDown moving there on October 1, 2010 (albeit on Fridays as opposed to NXT's Tuesday timeslot) and began airing as a webcast at WWE.com for visitors from the United States from October 5, 2010 to June 13, 2012. It soon aired as a WWE Network exclusive from 2014, where it remains today. As of March 23, 2017, all archived episodes of the reformatted version of the show from 2012 onward are available for on demand viewing via the WWE Network. Format Original format (2010–2012) : NXT was formed in 2010 when they paired up wrestlers from WWE's developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (dubbed "Rookies") with wrestlers from WWE's existing Raw and SmackDown brands (dubbed "Pros"). Each episode featured the rookies being mentored by the pros as they develop their characters and performance skills in front of a live audience. The pairings also enabled the show to crossover into WWE's Raw and SmackDown programs. As the length of each season differed, features of the competition occur at different times accordingly. In addition to matches, weekly challenges were held during the competition to further test the Rookies' physical and mental skills. Past physical challenges include a keg carrying contest, an assault course contest and a "Rock 'Em Sock 'Em" tournament. Past non-physical challenges include making 30-second promos on a given topic and selling programs within a time limit. During the first two seasons, the winner of the weekly challenge receives a special prize such as a main event match, a talk show segment or a feature on WWE's official website. One of the more frequent prizes given out to the winner is an "Immunity Pass," which gives the holder immunity from elimination in the next round of polls. During the last three seasons, a greater emphasis on challenges was placed on the show. Instead of awarding prizes to the winner of the challenges, points are instead awarded to the winner with a cumulative tally of points recorded before each of the first three polls. The Rookie with the most points before the next upcoming poll is awarded immunity. In season three, one point is awarded for winning the challenge. In season four, the number of points vary on the difficulty of the challenge. In the result of a tie-break, the audience is then asked to vote for the Rookie they want to get immunity. Season four also saw the introduction of challenge matches involving the entire roster of Pros or Rookies where the winner would be given the chance to swap their respective Rookie or Pro for another. In various weeks, polls were held to evaluate the success of each Rookie and determine the winner of the competition. The poll rankings are entirely determined by votes from the Pros and starting from season 2, votes from fans via WWE's official website. In the Pros' votes, each of the Pros vote for their favorite Rookie, but cannot vote for their own Rookie. Their votes are based on the following four criteria: * Win-loss record within the show * Strength of opponents * Work ethic * "It" factor Initially in the first two seasons, the full results and rankings from the poll were revealed. However, since August 17, 2010, only the elimination is revealed. The first poll, usually held a third of the way through the competition, determines the Rookies' rankings. Subsequent polls are held several weeks later near the end of the season, where the lowest ranked Rookie without immunity is eliminated. Season 2 was set to use this format, but was changed to have the first poll an elimination poll. Season three also used the second season's format. The show continued until the season finale, where the final two or three Rookies appear. One or two final polls were then held to determine the winner of the competition. The prize for the winner is a WWE contract as well as a championship match at any pay-per-view. Outside of the polls, Rookies could still be eliminated via an executive decision from WWE management, as the first season saw both Michael Tarver and Daniel Bryan eliminated by management for a lack of self-confidence. Starting in 2012, the all-rookie competition was abandoned with the show now featuring past and present rookies alongside lower card members of the main WWE roster. William Regal would also take over as the authority figure and match coordinator, with Matt Striker being retained as the show's host. Revised format (2012–present) In May 2012, the show's format was revamped. The show began using more talent from FCW, as well as talent from the main roster. The first four episodes under the new format were taped at Full Sail University] on May 17. WWE continued to air NXT Redemption, hoping a new television deal for NXT could be made. WWE.com revealed on June 13, 2012 that the new version of NXT would be made available online via WWE.com and YouTube beginning on Wednesday, June 20 when WWE would begin airing the episodes they taped at Full Sail University on May 17. On June 19, however, WWE removed all of the NXT material from their website. NXT was then aired exclusively on Hulu and Hulu Plus in the US, while continuing to be broadcast internationally. NXT began airing on the new WWE Network on February 27, 2014, starting with a live event called NXT Arrival. Since April 4, 2019, the official theme song for NXT is "All Out Life" by Slipknot, being announced by Triple H on social media. Before this, the theme song was "Resistance" by Powerflo which was first used on the May 31, 2017 episode of NXT. During the previous month and a half at April 12, 2017, the theme song for the show was "Rage" by CFO$. The song "Roar of the Crowd" by CFO$ served as the official theme song for NXT since its arrival to the WWE Network (February 27, 2014) to April 5, 2017. A remix of the same song was used starting on June 15, 2016 since NXT was now a developmental branch. "Welcome Home" by Coheed and Cambria was used from June 20, 2012 to February 24, 2014. The American Bang song "Wild and Young" had been used for each reality show season with the exception of the third season. During season three, the show's opening theme song was "You Make the Rain Fall" by Kevin Rudolf. Also promoting it as an "official theme song" for the show, NXT used "Get Thru This" by Art of Dying as bumper music during the initial five seasons of the show. NXT returned to cable on December 20, 2017, airing a 1-hour special on USA Network. In August 2019, WWE announced that NXT would permanently move to USA Network as a live, two-hour program on Wednesday nights beginning September 18, with replays available the following day on WWE Network. NXT will not immediately air in full on USA Network due to conflicts with the final episodes of Suits. Until then, the second hour will be temporarily exclusive to WWE Network until October 2, when the show will begin airing in its entirety on USA Network. Critics felt that the move was an attempt to counter program the upstart All Elite Wrestling, who will be premiering a weekly series on TNT in October. Gallery NXT_Wrestling_logo.png External links * WWE NXT on Wikipedia Category:World Wrestling Entertainment television programs